250 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



diminish the brain more than an ounce or two, but a year or more 

 would make a considerable difference. 



Taking, now, the sixty heaviest brains of persons not noted for 

 intellectual greatness, we find the averages to be 63.2 ounces. Com- 

 paring this with the average of sixty famous men, 51.3 ounces, we 

 find a difference in favor of imbeciles, idiots, criminals, and men of 

 ordinary mind of 11.9 ounces. George Combe estimated that about 

 53.5 ounces was the average weight of the adult brain. Thus the 

 average brain weight of all the eminent men whom we have brought 

 into the comparison, 51.3 ounces, is below Combe's estimate of that 

 of mankind in general. Again, the ten heaviest brains of our list of 

 famous men give an average weight of 61.1 ounces, while the aver- 

 age given by the ten heaviest of the opposite class is 70.4 ounces, or 

 9.3 ounces greater. While our list of eminent men shows only five 

 whose brains exceeded 58.6 ounces in weight, those of seventy-six 

 of the common throng — seven of them idiots or imbeciles — rise above 

 that figure. These figures augur badly for the doctrine that would 

 attach importance to heavy brains for giving force and depth of 

 individual character. 



Phrenologists assert that each organ of a mental faculty occupies 

 a certain position perceptible on the outside of the brain, with a 

 definite area which they have mapped out. .They also hold that each 

 of these organs extends to the center of the base of the brain, taper- 

 ing to it somewhat like a cone, having its base turned toward the 

 outer world. They make no account of the fissures, the intervening 

 sulci and anfractuosities that must cut many of these supposed cones, 

 some at right and some at oblique angles. Then the large, long 

 cavities or ventricles intercept and would hinder many of them from 

 reaching the central, basilar part of the brain. The anatomical 

 structure of the brain thus appears fatal to this theory of the organs. 



Large and complicated convolutions of the brain with deep sulci 

 have been regarded by some persons as inseparable from superior 

 powers of mind. The supposition is erroneous and groundless. The 

 rodents, such as beavers, squirrels, rats, mice, etc., have but little 

 brain and no convolutions whatsoever; * yet the beaver exhibits 

 great foresight, economy, industry, and mechanical skill in building 

 his dam, erecting his house, and storing up bark as food for the 

 winter. Moreover, these animals live in societies and labor in union 

 by ingenious methods for a common purpose, with nice judgment. 

 " So great a variety of labors," says Dr. Leuret, " is needed for the 

 constructions carried on by the beaver; they include so many in- 

 stances of well-made choice, so many accidental difficulties are sur- 



* The Nervous System, London, 1834, p. 447. 



